S.F. Board Watch: Supervisors Question High Cost of Jailhouse Calls

The cost of a call from jail could come down, if the Board of Supervisors has its way. At San Francisco's jails, inmates must pay an initial fee of between $1.25 and $3.95 for each phone call and are charged between 10 and 69 cents a minute, depending on whether it is local or out-of-state. Under a contract with an outside company, the Sheriff's Department receives 65 percent of the money for a fund to provide inmate services and supplies. The contract is expected to generate more than $3 million in revenue over its four-year term, but the supervisors are talking about renegotiating. In other news: Concerns over sex offenders at Bayview Homeless Shelter, city money to stop nonprofit displacement, and the soda tax expected to appear on next year's November ballot. [Original URL: https://www.sfpublicpress.org/s-f-board-watch-supervisors-question-high-cost-of-jailhouse-calls/]